Dear Chocolate Box Author!
Jan. 5th, 2018 08:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eglantiereDear Chocolate Box author, hi! Last year doing this challenge was great fun, and I hope this one will be no less, for you and for me. Thanks for matching up on my fandoms and writing or drawing for me! I hope you'll find my prompts fun, and if you don't, feel free to ODAO everything but my DNWs, and just create whatever works for you, I'm going to be happy with anything done with love in those fandoms of my heart.
For reference, al my previous fic challenge posts are here, and my AO3 bookmarks are here.
General likes:
- Hurt/comfort! All the hurt/comfort, you can't do wrong (or be too hardcore) with it. Physical h/c, emotional h/c, captivity scenarios, caretaking, whipping, dungeons, bullet wounds, you name it and i've been into it for decades. I love hurt/comfort mostly within the context of a relationship (not necessarily romantic - filial ties, friendship, brothers-in-arms comradeship, whichever fits), as an opening for one character to be hurt and for the other to be outraged/terrified/comforting on their behalf. The only thing I'm particular about, for each fandom, is who is getting hurt and who is doing the comforting.
- Found families, tight friendships, us-against-the-world, people finding and keeping each other, providing kindness and warmth against the dark.
- Hope and kindness, Clair universes, stories where the entropy tries its hardest but doesn't win.
- Loyalty in all forms! From ritualized (oaths, kneeling, ring-kissing, knights and bodyguards and henchmen and so on) to more casual ways, like standing up for your friends.
- Self-sacrifice (metaphorical and quite literal) and martyrdom (ditto).
- Non-mundane, tropey AUs - space opera! high fantasy! historical! pirates!
- Outsider POVs.
DNWs:
- Character death.
- Infidelity and partner betrayal of any kind.
- Hurt without comfort.
- A/B/O universes and mpreg.
- Grimdark stories and unhappy endings.
- PWPs.
Onwards to specific fandoms! Some of those carry over from Yuletide, some of those are new, I love all of them and want alll the things.
Gintama
Kagura & Sakata Gintoki
Sakata Gintoki & Shimura Shinpachi
Sakata Gintoki & Kagura & Shimura Shinpachi
Katsura Kotarou & Sakata Gintoki
Otose | Terada Ayano & Sakata Gintoki
Fanart, Fanfic
Gintama! Gintama ate my life and soul this year, good and proper, I'm completely smitten, overwhelmed, incredulous and in love. I know writing for Gintama is hard because, well, Gintama, and I just wanted to specify upfront that you don't have to emulate the canon tone to make me happy - going into more serious/earnest direction is fine with me. (Going into canon-appreciate batshit, whiplash direction is also fine with me! Pretty much anything is fine with me).
Things I adore and want more of:
- Gintoki being a Good Dad to Kagura or Shinpachi or both of them at once does things to my heart. In a silly way or in a serious way, but they're his to take care of, and he's this ridiculous, silly layabout and he's also the best role model there is and he'll take care of them to the end.
- I really really love the moments when Gin's protective ire is roused and he switches from being, well, Gin, to a scary power of nature who'll stop at nothing to protect those within the range of his sword. More of that please!
- I have a ridiculous amount of love for Katsura in all his batshit insanity, and I would love a story that showcases both his weirdness and his earnest greatness, and I love the weird of shared, horrible history between him and Gintoki. Flashback or current day story, them hanging out together and being ridiculous or having to work together on something more serious, them taking care of each other - anything goes.
- Gin and Otose, and the way they snipe and quarrel and rile each other up and yet Gin will literally break through the whole world if Otose asked it from him, and the way she never does, precisely because of it. (And the way it affects the balance of powers in Kabuki-cho, because that's pretty fascinating). The early days of their relationship or something far in the future? Anything goes.
- Basically, all the found family feelings ever. That's pretty much it.
Fandom-specific DNW: I'm up to 278th episode and the movie, and I'd prefer not to be spoiled past that, by anime or manga spoilers.
Pyre (Video Game)
Moon-Touched Girl & Jodariel & Hedwyn & Rukey Greentail
Fanart, Fanfic
(for reference: my review)
To summarize the link above, I was blown away by how gorgeous and how kind this game was, melancholy but not hopeless, and how hard it leaned on found family tropes, and how quickly and how helplessly I was invested in the fates of all the new Nightwings, together and apart, but especially the core crew, the ones you begin with. So I'd love to read something about them in whatever permutation of events, finding their way to each other.
(Feel free to include each and every other character, if you're so inclined, ditto the Reader; mine was of a female/disabled/scholar persuasion).
Some ideas!
- All of them upside, building a new life together alongside with Volfred's revolution.
- Some went up and some stayed down: missing each other, or writing letters to each other, or literally moving heaven and earth to meet again because they can't not.
- Moon-Touched Girl upside, the accidental Prophet of the Scribes, and the way the rest of them keep her safe and grounded.
- Sort of an orphanage pre-canon AU where Jodariel takes care of all of them, not just Hedwyn?
- All of them left below, after the end, making the Downside into something to fit in rather than a place of exile;
- Just general... caretaking, trauma recovery scenarios, in whatever combination: sharing pasts, teaching each other to love and live, providing shelter in the storm.
- Weird adventures on the road when it's just four or them (plus or minus the Reader), before the big games begin - Howler ambushes and tales around the campfire and exhaustion of the travel and kind of horrible but still beautiful sights, and the stars.
- Space opera, of the rickety-ship-stern-captain-hapless-stowaway kind?
- Some kind of procedural with a tough detective Jodariel and her original and accidental wards?
Mostly I'm just very, very, ridiculously invested in the ties between the four of them, forever, always.
Fandom-specific DNW: I'd rather not read about Reader/character pairings, even in the background.
Wynonna Earp (TV)
Xavier Dolls/Wynonna Earp/Doc Holliday
Fanart, Fanfic
I adore the relationship between the three of them (and keep hoping the canon is actually moving in this direction, too). So:
- Dolls and Doc figuring out their side of the triangle - respect and admiration are already here, I think, but where do they tip over into loving each other as well? How does it happen?
- Dolls and Doc teaming up to take care of Wynonna after the fallout of S2.
- Dolls' dragon side going out of control again, somewhere where they don't have access to his drugs, and Doc with Wynnona handling it.
- Wynonna and Dolls dealing with Doc's claustrophobia during a case that went wrong.
- In fact, casefics! The more insane and complicated, the better, giving them three a chance to figure out how they function together and apart as a unit.
- One of them disappears and the other two tear the world apart looking for them.
- All the tropey AUs ever. Are they bounty hunters in space, a-la Killjoys? Are they medieval demon hunters? Is Wynonna a disfavored heir for her father's kingdom and they're her loyal advisors? Go wild, the wilder the better.
Fandom-specific DNW: I like Alice's existence in concept, but I'd rather not read explicit kidfic that's focused on being a kidfic.
魔法使いの嫁 | Mahou Tsukai no Yome | The Ancient Magus Bride
Hatori Chise & Alice Hatori
Chise & Angelica Varley
Hatori Chise & Ruth
Fanart, Fanfic
This anime creats such a wonderfully weird, gorgeous world, at once deeply comforting and deeply disturbing, and I really love Chise and the way she tries to heal and slowly overcomes her trauma, opening up to people.
- Chise and Alice: both orphans, both intensely loyal to their masters, but where Chise is more reserved, Alice is straight up angry and proactive. I'd love to see them interact more and compare their experiences. Maybe they're in trouble together, maybe they're working a magical case together, maybe they have to save their respective masters from some horrible case together, maybe they just strike an unexpected friendship on the outskirts of their lives.
- Angelica is somebody who Chise might be with time, an independent, powerful mage doing her own things, and I'm very interested in the way Angelica obviously takes it up to take care of Chise in her own way. So I'd love to see more of Angelica looking out for Chise, teaching her things, explaining to her the corners of the magical world Elias would not know or care about, slowly getting her to be more self-reliant. What is the nature of her interest in Chise, why does she care? How did she come to be where she is? The reversal of this dynamic, with Chise taking care of Angelica somehow or coming to her rescue would also be pretty amazing. Or maybe the futurefic where they're on a more equal footing? Or maybe an AU where Angelica takes Chise in instead of Elias?
- Ruth is SO FREAKING ADORABLE and I love the way he gives himself to Chise and takes the place of somebody who will never ever let her feel lonely or abandoned again. I love that he's not quite human, and that he sort of aged down to be her peer rather than her elder, and that she's coming to rely on him, and that they too can be serious or more relaxed together. So anything that showcases their friendship, either through peaceful time or through some intense trouble, would be lovely. I'm also pretty interested in the way their dynamic is set up, in a sense that he's her protector but he also relies on her to call the shots and take care of the direction they both go in, that he's at once a support and a great responsibility for her; I wonder how Chise feels about it, once it occurs to her.
Fandom-specific DNW: While I don't mind Chise/Elias per se, I'm not particularly interested in it (I'm much more in the found family aspect of their relationship). So it mentioned in the background is fine, but I'd rather it not be a focus of the story.
バチカン奇跡調査官 | Vatican Kiseki Chousakan | Vatican Miracle Examiner
Hiraga Josef Kou & Roberto Nicholas
Fanart, Fanfic
(for reference: my review)
I've gotten an amazing sickfic for VME this Yuletide, and this made me hungry for MORE VME fics. In general: bring on candlelit dinners, creepy and twisted cases, true and false miracles, Roberto whump, pining, science, tears and hugs.
In particular:
- Casefics, casefics, all the casefics, all the deliciously weird casefics with all the life-and-death situations you can think of. Cave-ins! Blizzards! Death traps rooms! Ambushes and kidnappings! Cuddling for warmth! Protecting each other! More snakebites and weird amazing hallucinations! Evil cultists! Helpful application of sulphuric acid!
- Alternately, I have this craving for the strange domesticity of their Vatican life; maybe Roberto and Hiraga moving together and navigating the shores of their life together? Dinners and shopping and taking care and this easy, benign understanding they have for each other (honestly, I was dead and gone on the canon from their very scene together, where Hiraga admits to playing his game for the whole night in hopes that it would somehow help his little brother, and Roberto just going with it without missing a beat - and then, well, going to clean and iron for Hiraga, as one does).
- I'm sure this wasn't the last time Julia had tried to convert them both to his case, and the events in the finale will most definitely come back to haunt them. So, how?
- Somebody once described Roberto's feelings for Hiraga as 'pining while already being in committed relationship,' and just. Yes. Hiraga is at once so obviously full of love, and so oblivious of it, that there are endless possibilities for angst here, and I want all of them.
- I have a crucifixion kink a mile wide. So, I have a crucifixion (h/c) kink a mile wide, and Roberto is an ideal candidate.
- Bonus option: If you like to serious-ify a cracky canon, go for it! The show uses a very anime kind of Catholicism, mostly aesthetics and trappings, but I'm fascinated with how injecting a bit of the real deal will change things (or not): the actual everyday application of faith, you know? For example, we know from the novels that Hiraga is a true believer but Roberto mostly treats his position as a job that gives him access to old books; I wonder if the canon events changed it, for both of them.
- A completely non-obligatory bonus ridiculous crossover option on the chance you're into VME and Wynnona Earp at once: how would Roberto and Hiraga deal with the case that includes actual magic and demons from Hell?
- ETA because it literally just occured to me, ignore at will, BUT in case you've refreshed this letter, you know what could be amazing? A casefic from Bill's point of view. He's such a fan of our pair! He probably has Opinions on them and I want all. of. them.
If you like Lauren, I'm of the opinion that Lauren makes everything better (and makes for an ideal outsider's POV).
Fandom-specific DNW: For me, the allure of this relationship, given that both of them are priests, is that they are completely devoted to each other, but they're also at peace with being celibate. I'd prefer to see the same setup in fic - so, no sex between them, and also no angst about having to be celibate.
For reference, al my previous fic challenge posts are here, and my AO3 bookmarks are here.
General likes:
- Hurt/comfort! All the hurt/comfort, you can't do wrong (or be too hardcore) with it. Physical h/c, emotional h/c, captivity scenarios, caretaking, whipping, dungeons, bullet wounds, you name it and i've been into it for decades. I love hurt/comfort mostly within the context of a relationship (not necessarily romantic - filial ties, friendship, brothers-in-arms comradeship, whichever fits), as an opening for one character to be hurt and for the other to be outraged/terrified/comforting on their behalf. The only thing I'm particular about, for each fandom, is who is getting hurt and who is doing the comforting.
- Found families, tight friendships, us-against-the-world, people finding and keeping each other, providing kindness and warmth against the dark.
- Hope and kindness, Clair universes, stories where the entropy tries its hardest but doesn't win.
- Loyalty in all forms! From ritualized (oaths, kneeling, ring-kissing, knights and bodyguards and henchmen and so on) to more casual ways, like standing up for your friends.
- Self-sacrifice (metaphorical and quite literal) and martyrdom (ditto).
- Non-mundane, tropey AUs - space opera! high fantasy! historical! pirates!
- Outsider POVs.
DNWs:
- Character death.
- Infidelity and partner betrayal of any kind.
- Hurt without comfort.
- A/B/O universes and mpreg.
- Grimdark stories and unhappy endings.
- PWPs.
Onwards to specific fandoms! Some of those carry over from Yuletide, some of those are new, I love all of them and want alll the things.
Gintama
Kagura & Sakata Gintoki
Sakata Gintoki & Shimura Shinpachi
Sakata Gintoki & Kagura & Shimura Shinpachi
Katsura Kotarou & Sakata Gintoki
Otose | Terada Ayano & Sakata Gintoki
Fanart, Fanfic
Gintama! Gintama ate my life and soul this year, good and proper, I'm completely smitten, overwhelmed, incredulous and in love. I know writing for Gintama is hard because, well, Gintama, and I just wanted to specify upfront that you don't have to emulate the canon tone to make me happy - going into more serious/earnest direction is fine with me. (Going into canon-appreciate batshit, whiplash direction is also fine with me! Pretty much anything is fine with me).
Things I adore and want more of:
- Gintoki being a Good Dad to Kagura or Shinpachi or both of them at once does things to my heart. In a silly way or in a serious way, but they're his to take care of, and he's this ridiculous, silly layabout and he's also the best role model there is and he'll take care of them to the end.
- I really really love the moments when Gin's protective ire is roused and he switches from being, well, Gin, to a scary power of nature who'll stop at nothing to protect those within the range of his sword. More of that please!
- I have a ridiculous amount of love for Katsura in all his batshit insanity, and I would love a story that showcases both his weirdness and his earnest greatness, and I love the weird of shared, horrible history between him and Gintoki. Flashback or current day story, them hanging out together and being ridiculous or having to work together on something more serious, them taking care of each other - anything goes.
- Gin and Otose, and the way they snipe and quarrel and rile each other up and yet Gin will literally break through the whole world if Otose asked it from him, and the way she never does, precisely because of it. (And the way it affects the balance of powers in Kabuki-cho, because that's pretty fascinating). The early days of their relationship or something far in the future? Anything goes.
- Basically, all the found family feelings ever. That's pretty much it.
Fandom-specific DNW: I'm up to 278th episode and the movie, and I'd prefer not to be spoiled past that, by anime or manga spoilers.
Pyre (Video Game)
Moon-Touched Girl & Jodariel & Hedwyn & Rukey Greentail
Fanart, Fanfic
(for reference: my review)
To summarize the link above, I was blown away by how gorgeous and how kind this game was, melancholy but not hopeless, and how hard it leaned on found family tropes, and how quickly and how helplessly I was invested in the fates of all the new Nightwings, together and apart, but especially the core crew, the ones you begin with. So I'd love to read something about them in whatever permutation of events, finding their way to each other.
(Feel free to include each and every other character, if you're so inclined, ditto the Reader; mine was of a female/disabled/scholar persuasion).
Some ideas!
- All of them upside, building a new life together alongside with Volfred's revolution.
- Some went up and some stayed down: missing each other, or writing letters to each other, or literally moving heaven and earth to meet again because they can't not.
- Moon-Touched Girl upside, the accidental Prophet of the Scribes, and the way the rest of them keep her safe and grounded.
- Sort of an orphanage pre-canon AU where Jodariel takes care of all of them, not just Hedwyn?
- All of them left below, after the end, making the Downside into something to fit in rather than a place of exile;
- Just general... caretaking, trauma recovery scenarios, in whatever combination: sharing pasts, teaching each other to love and live, providing shelter in the storm.
- Weird adventures on the road when it's just four or them (plus or minus the Reader), before the big games begin - Howler ambushes and tales around the campfire and exhaustion of the travel and kind of horrible but still beautiful sights, and the stars.
- Space opera, of the rickety-ship-stern-captain-hapless-stowaway kind?
- Some kind of procedural with a tough detective Jodariel and her original and accidental wards?
Mostly I'm just very, very, ridiculously invested in the ties between the four of them, forever, always.
Fandom-specific DNW: I'd rather not read about Reader/character pairings, even in the background.
Wynonna Earp (TV)
Xavier Dolls/Wynonna Earp/Doc Holliday
Fanart, Fanfic
I adore the relationship between the three of them (and keep hoping the canon is actually moving in this direction, too). So:
- Dolls and Doc figuring out their side of the triangle - respect and admiration are already here, I think, but where do they tip over into loving each other as well? How does it happen?
- Dolls and Doc teaming up to take care of Wynonna after the fallout of S2.
- Dolls' dragon side going out of control again, somewhere where they don't have access to his drugs, and Doc with Wynnona handling it.
- Wynonna and Dolls dealing with Doc's claustrophobia during a case that went wrong.
- In fact, casefics! The more insane and complicated, the better, giving them three a chance to figure out how they function together and apart as a unit.
- One of them disappears and the other two tear the world apart looking for them.
- All the tropey AUs ever. Are they bounty hunters in space, a-la Killjoys? Are they medieval demon hunters? Is Wynonna a disfavored heir for her father's kingdom and they're her loyal advisors? Go wild, the wilder the better.
Fandom-specific DNW: I like Alice's existence in concept, but I'd rather not read explicit kidfic that's focused on being a kidfic.
魔法使いの嫁 | Mahou Tsukai no Yome | The Ancient Magus Bride
Hatori Chise & Alice Hatori
Chise & Angelica Varley
Hatori Chise & Ruth
Fanart, Fanfic
This anime creats such a wonderfully weird, gorgeous world, at once deeply comforting and deeply disturbing, and I really love Chise and the way she tries to heal and slowly overcomes her trauma, opening up to people.
- Chise and Alice: both orphans, both intensely loyal to their masters, but where Chise is more reserved, Alice is straight up angry and proactive. I'd love to see them interact more and compare their experiences. Maybe they're in trouble together, maybe they're working a magical case together, maybe they have to save their respective masters from some horrible case together, maybe they just strike an unexpected friendship on the outskirts of their lives.
- Angelica is somebody who Chise might be with time, an independent, powerful mage doing her own things, and I'm very interested in the way Angelica obviously takes it up to take care of Chise in her own way. So I'd love to see more of Angelica looking out for Chise, teaching her things, explaining to her the corners of the magical world Elias would not know or care about, slowly getting her to be more self-reliant. What is the nature of her interest in Chise, why does she care? How did she come to be where she is? The reversal of this dynamic, with Chise taking care of Angelica somehow or coming to her rescue would also be pretty amazing. Or maybe the futurefic where they're on a more equal footing? Or maybe an AU where Angelica takes Chise in instead of Elias?
- Ruth is SO FREAKING ADORABLE and I love the way he gives himself to Chise and takes the place of somebody who will never ever let her feel lonely or abandoned again. I love that he's not quite human, and that he sort of aged down to be her peer rather than her elder, and that she's coming to rely on him, and that they too can be serious or more relaxed together. So anything that showcases their friendship, either through peaceful time or through some intense trouble, would be lovely. I'm also pretty interested in the way their dynamic is set up, in a sense that he's her protector but he also relies on her to call the shots and take care of the direction they both go in, that he's at once a support and a great responsibility for her; I wonder how Chise feels about it, once it occurs to her.
Fandom-specific DNW: While I don't mind Chise/Elias per se, I'm not particularly interested in it (I'm much more in the found family aspect of their relationship). So it mentioned in the background is fine, but I'd rather it not be a focus of the story.
バチカン奇跡調査官 | Vatican Kiseki Chousakan | Vatican Miracle Examiner
Hiraga Josef Kou & Roberto Nicholas
Fanart, Fanfic
(for reference: my review)
I've gotten an amazing sickfic for VME this Yuletide, and this made me hungry for MORE VME fics. In general: bring on candlelit dinners, creepy and twisted cases, true and false miracles, Roberto whump, pining, science, tears and hugs.
In particular:
- Casefics, casefics, all the casefics, all the deliciously weird casefics with all the life-and-death situations you can think of. Cave-ins! Blizzards! Death traps rooms! Ambushes and kidnappings! Cuddling for warmth! Protecting each other! More snakebites and weird amazing hallucinations! Evil cultists! Helpful application of sulphuric acid!
- Alternately, I have this craving for the strange domesticity of their Vatican life; maybe Roberto and Hiraga moving together and navigating the shores of their life together? Dinners and shopping and taking care and this easy, benign understanding they have for each other (honestly, I was dead and gone on the canon from their very scene together, where Hiraga admits to playing his game for the whole night in hopes that it would somehow help his little brother, and Roberto just going with it without missing a beat - and then, well, going to clean and iron for Hiraga, as one does).
- I'm sure this wasn't the last time Julia had tried to convert them both to his case, and the events in the finale will most definitely come back to haunt them. So, how?
- Somebody once described Roberto's feelings for Hiraga as 'pining while already being in committed relationship,' and just. Yes. Hiraga is at once so obviously full of love, and so oblivious of it, that there are endless possibilities for angst here, and I want all of them.
- I have a crucifixion kink a mile wide. So, I have a crucifixion (h/c) kink a mile wide, and Roberto is an ideal candidate.
- Bonus option: If you like to serious-ify a cracky canon, go for it! The show uses a very anime kind of Catholicism, mostly aesthetics and trappings, but I'm fascinated with how injecting a bit of the real deal will change things (or not): the actual everyday application of faith, you know? For example, we know from the novels that Hiraga is a true believer but Roberto mostly treats his position as a job that gives him access to old books; I wonder if the canon events changed it, for both of them.
- A completely non-obligatory bonus ridiculous crossover option on the chance you're into VME and Wynnona Earp at once: how would Roberto and Hiraga deal with the case that includes actual magic and demons from Hell?
- ETA because it literally just occured to me, ignore at will, BUT in case you've refreshed this letter, you know what could be amazing? A casefic from Bill's point of view. He's such a fan of our pair! He probably has Opinions on them and I want all. of. them.
If you like Lauren, I'm of the opinion that Lauren makes everything better (and makes for an ideal outsider's POV).
Fandom-specific DNW: For me, the allure of this relationship, given that both of them are priests, is that they are completely devoted to each other, but they're also at peace with being celibate. I'd prefer to see the same setup in fic - so, no sex between them, and also no angst about having to be celibate.